Frame renovation, shot blasting & powder coat

[Justin Cyder]

My faithful & lovely Rockhopper is starting to look a little tatty on the frame to the extent I'm thinking of stripping it down & getting it painted.

Anyone done this? Any pit falls to loo out for & is it cheap enough to do, assuming the frame would need to be blasted & prepped prior to powder coating.

[anonymous-user]

I've just done it on an old alu frame Allez. Wasnt too bothered about the finish as its a commuter hack but I sanded it down with medium then fine paper, two cans of gloss black plasti-kote and a can of clear lacquer and it looks pretty good. You just need to be patient with the strip and leave it a few hours between each coat of paint. Total cost was less than £30.

Argos in Bristol have a good reputation and will charge about £150 but it will obviously be a better finish and much more resistnat to stone chips, you pays your money and takes your choice etc etc

try to find someone who uses plastic media stripping rather than sand or shot though as its kinder to alu frames.

[Justin Cyder]

Excellent stuff. Cheers Pablo.

[FamstonDrells]

I had a vintage frame shotblasted and sprayed with black cellulose by two places near Uxbridge that usually do classic cars.

Fantastic job, £120 all in. Supplied my own paint though. Shotblasters were Eltec; can't remember the bodyshop.

[Justin Cyder]

I'm south coast near Brighton if anyone has any recommendations this way.

[iiyama]

Why not try a wheel refurb place? They must be used to stripping back and dealing with aluminium alloy's.....

Just a thought!

[gazza285]

I've had two frame sets done, blasted and powder coated, two different places, but both £60. Might not be as shiny as paint, but it's good enough.

[Matt106]

I had a frame shot blasted and powder coated for £39 in candy apple red. ANy local powder coater should be able to do this for you.

[Justin S]

I stripped the paint off a frame and a local to me powder coaters charged me £20 to do it black. I just prepped the frame threads and they did the rest.

[Justin Cyder]

What did you use to strip it?

[Justin S]

Nitromors seemed to get the paint off. It was before they took all the nice smelling fumes out the stuff and was more potent then !!

[47p2]

Usually around £30-£40 to powdercoat around my area

[dogbucket]

Argos have done 2 of my frames after a bad experience with a powder coater. They do the traditional stove enamelling which could be a bit chiptastic on an offroad bike, or a 2 part hard wearing epoxy paint which I went for.

They are not cheap and there is a fair wait, but recommended.

[Justin Cyder]

Well it's started.





Pile of bits.

[curlie467]

I have read a lot that powder coating an alloy frame is a no-no due to the heat treating process, I may be wrong but it may be worth a call to a specialist first to see if it will be ok.

[Justin Cyder]

It's back from the paint shop. Undamaged too!



Can't speak to them til tomorrow, but I left the lower headset bearing in the frame by accident. They removed it & it hasn't come back, thus dashing my hopes of building it up tonight. On the assumption it's lost, is that a common LBS item? Need a ride this weekend.

[Deerfoot]

Justin Cyder said:

On the assumption it's lost, is that a common LBS item? Need a ride this weekend.

Any decent LBS should hold them. I ordered one on-line last time I needed one, it arrived within 48 hours so if you order now it should be would you on Saturday.

[Justin Cyder]

Great. Lucky for me, the LBS is round the corner. I'll pop in tomorrow if my bearing has disappeared permanently.

[Justin Cyder]

Confession time. There I am, going along great guns, new headset bearing in, new BB in, building up nicely. Time for the cranks to go on & on autopilot, I attach them to the wrong sides.

Now I can't get them off as they're octalink & I haven't got a puller. Back to the LBS to be laughed at & charged for it too.

Woo Hoo!


D'oh!

[Justin S]

You should be able to get an Octolink puller at Halfords. Personally making a howler of a mess like that, I would be inclined to buy a puller than suffer the titters from bike staff. I have a puller, if you want to use one?